Amazon wants to bring its ticketing business to the US

Watch out, Ticketmaster

When it comes to selling event tickets in the US, Ticketmaster is king. It would take a massive company with almost limitless resources to challenge its dominance – two attributes that describe Amazon. According to a Reuters report, the online retail giant is looking to partner with American venue owners to sell event tickets.

Amazon already runs its Amazon Tickets program in the UK, where it outsells Ticketmaster for some events, and the company has plans for it to expand into Europe, Asia, and the States. A job posting last year said Amazon wanted its initiative to become “the world’s premier destination for purchasing tickets.”

For Amazon, a US ticketing business could be another incentive for more people to sign up to its Prime service, while music acts and sports teams could use it to sell their merchandise alongside event tickets.

To try and break the grip of Ticketmaster parent company Live Nation, which controls 196 concert venues, Amazon has reportedly “offered to write sponsorship checks worth millions of dollars to the venues.” But one of the hurdles it faces is over control of the ticket buyers’ data.

The company has also approached one unspecified sports league about selling tickets on the second-hand market, much like StubHub.

“[O]ur vision goes beyond just selling tickets as we aim to disrupt the entire live entertainment experience, including what happens before, during and after the show,” states the 2016 job post. “The ticketing business is ripe for innovation and improvement, as much of the industry has not fundamentally changed since the 1970s.”

With the animosity people feel toward Ticketmaster over the processing fees it adds to ticket prices, Amazon could already have the advantage of public support when it does decide to enter the US ticketing market.